Today, with Senators close to a deal to reopen the government and lift the debt limit, John Boehner may finally have to come to terms with those two facts, and accept their implications: The only way out of this mess is through an alliance of non-Tea Party Republicans and Democrats.

Could have done this a long time ago and avoided everything, but nooooooo. That would have been hard.

Nadie_AZ:Today, with Senators close to a deal to reopen the government and lift the debt limit, John Boehner may finally have to come to terms with those two facts, and accept their implications: The only way out of this mess is through an alliance of non-Tea Party Republicans and Democrats.

Could have done this a long time ago and avoided everything, but nooooooo. That would have been hard.

Let me float a hypothesis here: Boehner thinks that by caving in to the Teabaggers he is laying thegroundwork for maintaining the GOP majority in the House come 2014.

Look if they were just insisting on misguided financial parsimony I might think they were something other than a bunch of Dominionist theocrats. But since they keep pushing these reproductive health issues to the fore its obvious they are just insane zealots.

Because nothing would be more productive to the financial well being of the country than comprehensive care for women and children. Want to cut entitlement programs? Simplest way to do that is provide free and safe reproductive health care.

But... no. They want to watch the world burn because thats what Jesus would do.

The Tea Party is an odd mixture of fiscal absolutists and fiscal absolutist theocrats, with the latter accepting the former because they are the only other fiscal absolutists out there. All the while, they keep telling each other that the Tea Party is only about fiscal issues, not social issues, while electing people who promise to prosecute women who have miscarriages. The dissonance is bizarre.

sorry, but no, the tea party is blowing it out of their ass... they're an odd mix of explosive materials that have farked our country into being a useless country (especially without the o) that the rest of the world now has no faith or trust in. thanks for the isolationist tactics. jackwads.

tobcc:Marcus Aurelius: It's not over yet. Ted Cruz can still put a wrench in the works for a day or two. The stock markets wouldn't like it, but Ted just doesn't seem to care.

I read his wife is a stock broker and she is the one who pays the bills. I am sure he will here about it, and it would hit him personally in the wallet.

"Heidi Cruz -- Mrs. Ted Cruz -- is a vice president in the Private Wealth Management Group at Goldman Sachs in Houston, where she manages the investments of high net worth clients. "

Goldman Sachs makes money no matter which way the market moves. As long as they know which way it's headed first. Which means Ted will be OK with his wife as long as he tells her everything that happens in DC, and keeps her appraised of his insanity level.

Marcus Aurelius:tobcc: Marcus Aurelius: It's not over yet. Ted Cruz can still put a wrench in the works for a day or two. The stock markets wouldn't like it, but Ted just doesn't seem to care.

I read his wife is a stock broker and she is the one who pays the bills. I am sure he will here about it, and it would hit him personally in the wallet.

"Heidi Cruz -- Mrs. Ted Cruz -- is a vice president in the Private Wealth Management Group at Goldman Sachs in Houston, where she manages the investments of high net worth clients. "

Goldman Sachs makes money no matter which way the market moves. As long as they know which way it's headed first. Which means Ted will be OK with his wife as long as he tells her everything that happens in DC, and keeps her appraised of his insanity level.

They have a good business model. They get billions from the Treasury at 0% interest and buy Treasury Bills so the Government can pay them interest.

The only good that could possible come out of the last 2 weeks is the end of the Hastert Rule, which fundamentally circumvents the process of bipartisanship deal making and has inexplicably allowed a small minority to hold the rest of the country hostage.

Boehner: Help me out here!House Dems: What's in it for us?Boehner: NothingHouse Dems: How about you keep your job and Dems get the chairmanship of all house committees, sub committees and we decide which bills get brought to a vote?Boehner: but but but teahadists will take my job

The dems should offer to vote him back into speakership in exchange for bringing it up for a vote and then when the teabaggers try to vote him out, they all vote for pelosi instead and watch the coward get dropkicked to the curb like he deserves.

DjangoStonereaver:Nadie_AZ: Today, with Senators close to a deal to reopen the government and lift the debt limit, John Boehner may finally have to come to terms with those two facts, and accept their implications: The only way out of this mess is through an alliance of non-Tea Party Republicans and Democrats.

Could have done this a long time ago and avoided everything, but nooooooo. That would have been hard.

Let me float a hypothesis here: Boehner thinks that by caving in to the Teabaggers he is laying thegroundwork for maintaining the GOP majority in the House come 2014.

Boehner, therefore, is a moron.

He just trying to keep his job

It's the same crap that happens in parliamentary governments run by a razor thin coalition, give in to all the fringe lunatics you partnered w/ or face a vote of no confidence.

Yeah without Tea Party support, there's no way they could possibly have cobbled something together that had a chance of passing. Oh, unless it was something that Democrats might actually vote for too.. but that's just silly talk.

Kuroshin:But then you have to agree to the social contract, which as we know is just another term for socialism!!!!

you have to be a blithering idiot to not see the good in SS and medicare. especially anyone who has lived through both the dot com bust and the fark up that was the latter Bush years. (ok all the bush years) anyone of upper middle income or below who thinks they can count on nothing more than themselves for their golden years is delusional. in a perfect world, sure. in what we have been through and what we are looking at, oh hell no.

those folks with the "keep the government out of my medicare" signs have it right even if they have no idea why. repeal the ACA, privatize medicare with vouchers and watch those folks writhe in pain under crushing medical debt.

But spending cuts, entitlement guts and birth control bans are all things that should be done through legislation, not funding debates. Why won't they do things the constitutional way? Why do they hate the constitution? Are they trying to be dictators? 'Cuz that sounds like something an unconstitutional dictator might do.

Which brings up another bit of cognizant dissonance: if Obama is being an Emperor/Dictator/King/Whatever, would we even have had this legislative brouhaha? Or would a dictator simply have ordered the military to surround the congress building and order them to pass things his way, or start shooting GOP asswipes if they didn't? Not that that wouldn't be the best hour of CSPAN ever but that's not what he did. So, in acting constitutionally, Obama was acting like a dictator? Make that make sense to me.

TimonC346:According to what I've read on Yahoo! comments, they are all small government, even about abortion. Seems the commentors on Yahoo! comments are sort of uninformed.

I gave the Yahoo News comments a try during the elections... for about a day and a half. It became pretty clear that the people who comment on Yahoo articles are the exact same people who have multiple toolbars installed on Internet Explorer.

Curious:Kuroshin: But then you have to agree to the social contract, which as we know is just another term for socialism!!!!

you have to be a blithering idiot to not see the good in SS and medicare. especially anyone who has lived through both the dot com bust and the fark up that was the latter Bush years. (ok all the bush years) anyone of upper middle income or below who thinks they can count on nothing more than themselves for their golden years is delusional. in a perfect world, sure. in what we have been through and what we are looking at, oh hell no.

those folks with the "keep the government out of my medicare" signs have it right even if they have no idea why. repeal the ACA, privatize medicare with vouchers and watch those folks writhe in pain under crushing medical debt.

No joke. I used to work as a health care vendor, and they would be absolutely astounded the costs we as a Nation absorb via Medicare so that they can stay healthy enough into their crotchety geriatric years to march on D.C. and yell at clouds.

I'm not a fan of the ACA (prefer some form of single payer, with private gilding via optional plans), but these people aren't against the ACA - they're just against Democrats. They are both stupid *and* insane, and they've somehow managed to seize control of juuuust enough of one party to derail the entire goddamn country.

CPennypacker:I guess I just don't get it. Are they supposed to be funny?

they can be. Most of the funnier ones have too-strong-for-fark language (or are animated and too big for Fark to post) so i don't use them personally. I think it's more a slight humiliation - your victim is being shut-down by pastel cartoon ponies.

It helps the show itself is very decent and fun, if you're subjected to kids shows it's definitely one of the least objectionable (funny given its roots as a strictly toy-selling series).